Florida Gators Football: Will Muschamp's First Hire May Be BFF Kirby Smart

The Alabama Crimson Tide and Nick Saban must be working quietly during this 2010 bowl season to prevent one of their best assistant coaches from defecting to one of their biggest rivals in the SEC.

When Will Muschamp stood in front of the podium and spoke to the Gator Nation during his official introduction as Florida's new head coach, he stated that he would take his time hiring his staff and wait until the bowl season concluded.

The way he spoke, it sounded as if Coach Muschamp wasn't committing to hiring anyone to run his defense. Frankly, if Muschamp doesn't get Kirby Smart to come over to Florida, don't be surprised if he decides to run the defense himself.

Muschamp and Smart are best friends and played together at Georgia. Smart took over as defensive coordinator at Valdosta State when Muschamp vacated the position to join Saban's staff at LSU. He later joined Muschamp at LSU and the Miami Dolphins. Needless to say, not only do they have an established personal relationship, but a professional one, too.

How would it look to have two former Georgia Bulldogs as the head coach and defensive coordinator at the University of Florida?

How can the University of Georgia continue to allow head coach Mark Richt to continue driving their football program into the ground while former players who are major players in the college football world get away and find their way to a hated rival like Florida? Remember, Georgia made a play for Kirby Smart after the 2009 season.

Clearly, this is all conjecture and nobody really knows what is going to happen. That being said, it makes sense for Smart to head over to Florida and work for his best friend, or perhaps the silence coming out of Tuscaloosa is Smart's way of working a major salary raise to remain.

The first couple of weeks in January 2011 should prove to be very interesting.

James Walker is a National and Syndicated Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on: